Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Sometimes, with journeys that start in the west and ends in the east, the
effects of jet lag are more pronounced. As the body counters the natural
‘circadian’ rhythm, days are experienced as dragging somewhat longer. Those
with sleeping problems should in theory be better equipped in facing this
unnatural rhythm, as they are more used to staying up later than what normal
sleeping hours dictate. With flights to Jakarta that
land around 6pm,
my body, seemingly unaware of having left London,
is often forced to endure more than 24 hours worth of a day. It is the
same predicament that leads John Self, the protagonist in Martin Amis' 80s
novel Money, to countless cups of coffee and pornography.

The
mood of jet lag is thus further specified by which direction you are going.
True to all jet lags are mild degrees of depression and emotional distortions
that accompany dehydration and fatigue. Entering the familiar realm of jet lag,
my senses are warped and I experience the world as if from within a protected
vessel. My body is doubly removed, fragmented a few times over: first
temporally, and then in trying to adjust with, for instance, alien climates.
When compounded with the thick, humid air of the tropics, as my recent trip to Jakarta exemplifies,
the symptoms of jet lag are characterized by a sense of things as being
somehow weightier, more oppressive. My reactions to what surrounds
me appear leadened and detached, marked by involuntary disinterestedness.

Contrastingly,
with a 12pm arrival
in London, having now
accustomed to the daily patterns of Jakarta time,
I return strangely energetic. I begin to create irrational errands, and
conversations would soon be peppered by wildly sentimental remarks. What center
my body created by adhering to previous location is, as expected, disrupted
once again, only to be resolved as I gradually disengage with past place.